Carton with opening for controlled dispensing

Abstract

A rectangularly shaped carton for containing a plurality of flexible, rectangularly shaped planar articles, such as diapers, in stacked rows therein includes a specially configured dispensing opening in the front wall thereof for controlling the dispensing of the articles therefrom in a manner to prevent inadvertant removal of multiple quantities of the articles. The dispensing opening includes a first and second vertical dimension which are respectively longer and shorter than the longest edge of each of the articles, while the edges of the front wall defining such opening extend oblique to any of the edges of the articles whereby to limit dispensing of the articles to a one-at-a-time basis. A triangular dispensing opening is preferred which is provided with a similarly shaped, tear-away closure panel hingedly connected along the base side thereof to the front wall to permit reclosing the carton.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. In combination with a plurality of flexible rectangularly shaped, generally planar articles, said articles being arranged in aligned, face to face abutting relationship, and in stacked rows and columns presenting a rectangular matrix of adjacent faces of said articles, an upstanding dispensing carton which facilitates the removal of single articles comprising: a top, bottom, front, back and end walls joined together for enclosing said articles therein with the adjacent planar faces of said articles in said matrix being in opposed, essentially parallel relationship to said front wall, and   said front wall including a symmetric trapezoidal closure panel being at least partially removable from said front wall to create a similarly shaped dispensing opening, with the base side of said closure panel being connected to said front wall by a fold line forming a hinged connection, and with the remaining sides of said closure panel being defined by tear lines extending obliquely to the side edges of the front wall and consisting of notched interlocking extensions in both said closure panel and said front wall to establish reclosure means for said closure panel, the sides of said closure panel extending upwardly from the opposite extremities of said fold line towards each other throughout their length and terminating in spaced apart points along the top edge of said front walls, the height of said dispensing opening measured along an imaginary line perpendicular to the center of the base of said dispensing opening to the opposed top edge thereof is greater than the height of one of said rectangular articles and wherein the width of said dispensing opening measured along the base of said opening is greater than the width of one of said articles, the width of said dispensing opening measured along an imaginary line parallel to said base and adjacent said top edge is less than the width of one of said articles, and a vertical dimension on opposite horizontal sides of the imaginary perpendicular line to intermediate sections of each of the sides of said closure panel is less than the height of one of said rectangular articles, whereby when said closure panel is opened to define said dispensing opening, an article may be removed from within said carton only by twisting and deforming said articles to fit through said dispensing opening such that the dispensing of articles is controlled and the likelihood of the articles accidentally falling out of said opening is substantially reduced, and   an access panel in said top wall of said carton adjacent said front wall for tearing said closure panel along said tear lines, said access panel being defined by an extension of each of said oblique tear lines in said top wall joined by an arcuate score line defining a triangularly shaped apex portion of the closure panel.